Brothers
by BeyondMyReach
Summary: Rosinante, from the moment he infiltrated Doflamingo's life all the way until The End. In the end, Doflamingo saw too much of his little brother in Corazon and Rosinante saw too much of his older brother in Doflamingo.
Spoilers up for Law's past. Just in case you forgot, Rosinante == Corazon. Corazon is a title, Rosinante is his birth name.

* * *

Rosinante was prepared to do whatever he had to when he showed himself to his brother fourteen years after he first disappeared. He was willing to steel himself against whatever atrocities he had to perform in order to infiltrate Doflamingo's family and climb the rank until he was trusted with pertinent, important information that he could pass to Sengoku.

What Rosinante didn't expect was when he asked Doflamingo in writing if he could join the Donquixote Family, for a manic grin to spread across his brother's face. Rosinante unwittingly flinched, which he was sure didn't escape Doflamingo's notice, but his brother merely ruffled his hair and said, "Of course, you're my biological brother, my _family_."

He promptly made Rosinante an Executive of the Family, no questions asked, after Rosinante showed that during their time apart he learned how to fight. When Vergo left for a secret mission that even Rosinante wasn't privy to, Doflamingo upped his status to the second Corazon, the Heart.

Xxx

The first time Rosinante tripped in front of his brother, Doflamingo laughed and laughed and laughed until he was sure tears were streaming behind his brother's tinted shades.

"Still a klutz, I see," Doflamingo said, his tone fond, before Rosinante was lifted to his feet with the wave of his brother's hand.

The strings on him disappeared almost as quick as they came, but Rosinante couldn't help but be disquieted by the disturbing ease which his brother manipulated him.

Xxx

Some days when Doflamingo and Rosinante sat side by side in living room of the Donquixote Family headquarter, Rosinante lazily smoking while Doflamingo was reading the news, his brother would comment on whatever he was reading. In the early days of Rosinante's undercover, there would be a beat of silence that followed in which Doflamingo would wait for his brother to reply and Rosinante almost did. It happened often enough that Rosinante would use his Devil Fruit's ability Silence on himself daily, only stopping later on when he became used to playing mute that he stopped instinctively almost replying verbally.

Rosinante slowly grew used to his own silence, but Doflamingo never really did. Nowadays his brother knew better than to expect a reply and merely went back to reading after his comment - or if he really wanted conversation, wait for Rosinante to painstakingly write out his reply - , but back then, a peculiar look would come over Doflamingo's face after the silence stretched and he realized that the answer he was waiting for from his little brother would never come.

One time, after Doflamingo once again forgot and waited for a reply that would never be verbalized, he dropped the newspaper that he was reading and stood. Rosinante stopped himself from stiffening and instead, continued to lounge in his chair without a care in the world. He plucked his cigarette from his lips and exhaled, watching the smoke dissipate in the air for a moment, before looking towards his brother who towered over him.

Doflamingo stepped closer to Rosinante until his legs were on either side of Rosinante's, trapping them there. He closed both his hands around Rosinante's neck without a single word and merely stared down at him. Rosinante wondered what he was thinking behind his tinted shades as he approximated where Doflamingo's gaze was and tried to meet it. He didn't flinch. He had trained it out of him, just like how he trained verbally speaking out of him.

Rosinante tried to not think about how it also had something to do with the fact that standing by Doflamingo's side, sitting by his side, fighting by his side reminded him all too clearly of their shared past, before the Donquixote Family's creation, before their parents' death, before they left Mariejois. When Doflamingo was a brother to him, and not an enemy to be stopped at all cost. When Rosinante trusted him (and part of Rosinante always will, will never stop looking for the older brother in Doflamingo that should have been long gone).

Doflamingo brushed his thumbs down his throat, slowly, thoughtfully and without a word, repeating that motion several of times as he moved outwards to the side of his neck. Rosinante swallowed lightly as Doflamingo's thumbs traced where his jugular veins were, and wished his brother didn't wear his sunglasses so he could gauge his thoughts from his eyes.

"You really can't speak anymore, huh?" his brother finally said, and there was a moment of silence where Rosinante's answer was supposed to be. Rosinante broke his approximate eye contact with his brother to reach for paper and pen, suddenly glad that Doflamingo was wearing those tinted sunglasses because there was a soft, almost vulnerable quality to his voice that Rosinante didn't want to examine too closely, much less than see. He didn't want to look into Doflamingo's eyes and see the brother he remembered reflecting in them, or worse, don't see him at all.

Rosinante's heart throbbed at the thought, and he couldn't help but feel relieved when Doflamingo turned around and left the room without waiting for Rosinante's reply.

That was the last time Doflamingo spoke to Rosinante expecting a verbal answer.

Xxx

Rosinante since long accepted that as long as he stayed undercover within the Donquixote Family, performing unsavory acts was a necessary evil. What he couldn't stand, however, was the look of fear the citizens would cast him whenever he went into town. It reminded him too much of the time when he went into town with his father and brother, and his father unwittingly announced to the world that they were former World Nobles. Those looks of fear and disgust… Rosinante had forgotten how hurtful it could feel after living in the Navy for fourteen years where everyone - especially Sengoku, Tsuru and Garp - was so kind to him. It made it all more unbearable to see those looks directed towards him now, all because a pair of sunglasses was perched on the bridge of his nose, a feathered coat was draped against his back and his blond hair was tousled in the air for the world to see.

They were too similar, Doflamingo and Rosinante.

 _Brothers,_ Rosinante could hear Doflamingo say with a smile in his voice. _We're our only biological family left._

At the sight of all the frightened stares, Rosinante retreated back to the Donquixote Family headquarters. The next day, he slipped into Baby 5's room and stole the blood-red lipsticks that she was practicing to put on with. He appeared to breakfast that day with a painted red smile that extended beyond the corners of his lips and slashed across almost his entire face.

Baby 5 complained about him taking her stuff, but one warning look from him stopped her from making any further comments. It didn't stop her from laughing madly with Buffalo when he tripped on his own feathered coat and promptly fell to the ground with his legs sticking up in the air though. The other Executives laughed too and made comments about his masculinity, but Rosinante ignored them in favor of gauging his brother's reaction.

Doflamingo raised an eyebrow at the sight of his face, said, "Trying for a new style, Corazon?", then smirked but made no further comment. Rosinante took that as approval and a week later, tatooed that red smile across his face in addition to four blue spikes dangling from under his right eyes like extended eyelashes.

He couldn't bear to abandon his feathered coat and sunglasses, however, and was glad that the tattoos on his face alone made him distinctive enough from Doflamingo. Just in case, he also bought a set of new button down with pink hearts all over them and a pink hood with two hearts dangling from them as well.

They didn't have to be pink, to be honest, but sue him, he liked pink.

(Just like his brother.)

Xxx

Although Doflamingo trusted him enough to let him be his Executive, to be Corzaon, to be his Heart, there were things that he didn't tell Rosinante as well. Things like what Vergo's secret assignment was or where he was sent.

Sometimes when everyone was out or at the other side of the headquarter, Rosinante would slip into his brother's room to try to find more information. Because there would inevitably be some sort of incriminating document or lead that can assist the Navy in stalling Doflamingo's plans, Rosinante ended up looking in his brother's room whenever an opportunity arise. In those occasions, his Devil Fruit's ability Silence was a major assistant in helping him slip in and out of his brother's room unnoticed, especially since Rosinante was still clumsy in tripping over everything and anything.

Rosinante was looking through his brother's desk once again when the doorknob to the bedroom began to rattle. Rosinante cursed in his mind. _Shouldn't he still be at the meeting?_

Rosinante quickly looked around, but there was simply not enough time. He tossed himself onto the bed, the upper half of his body _thudding_ against the bed while the lower half propped upright with his knees against the floor. He snapped to cancel Silence the second the bed stopped vibrating from his impact, and a heartbeat later, light flooded into the room as the door opened.

Footsteps made its way to the bed, stopping right where Rosinante was half-lying plain in sight. In Doflamingo's room.

Rosinante's heart pounded against his chest.

"Oi, what are you doing in here, Corazon?" Doflamingo said, sounding a little peeved. A hand shook his shoulder, but Rosinante merely rubbed his face insistently against the bed and squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

 _'Doffy,'_ Rosinante mouthed lightly without a single sound. He willed tears to come to his eyes and was gratified when a bit lined his eyes. He could feel it against his eyelashes, so hopefully they were visible enough.

Doflamingo's shaking hand stopped, and Rosinante inwardly held his breath as he outwardly made his breathing unstable, as though he was having a nightmare.

There was a pause, before Doflamingo's hand on his shoulder withdrew, only to drop onto his hair instead. Blond like Doflamingo's, but longer, wavier. His brother rubbed a few strands between his fingers for a moment, before heaving a small sigh. "Sleep on the bed at least, you idiot," he said gruffly, before lifting Rosinante up.

Rosinante's stomach dropped for a moment, before he realized his brother was physically lifting him up and not using his strings.

Doflamingo placed him down after some shuffling, and Rosinante found his head lying on a pillow and his body under a blanket. The end of the bed dipped as Doflamingo shifted there. Carefully, as though to not waken him, his brother slid his shoes off and dropped them against the ground with two small _thuds_. A bit later, another two - presumably Doflamigo's shoes - followed.

Doflamingo laid beside Rosinante on the bed, his gaze heavy enough that Rosinante knew even without opening his eyes that his brother was staring at him. Doflamingo slid a hand against his face, thumbing at his tattoos much like how he once thumbed at Ronsinate's neck.

Uncomfortable by the silence and the unfaltering attention, Rosinante emitted an unconscious-sounding distressed noise from the back of his throat, hoping that his brother would react as he predicted. Doflamingo stilled for a moment, before drawing Rosinante to his chest, just like how he did back then in Mariejois and when they lived in a hovel in poverty after they left.

"Still a crybaby, Roci?" he murmured with contempt, but the hand combing through his hair was soft, soothing. Rosinante was soon lulled into a real sleep and when he woke up the next morning beside his brother, he quietly slipped out from Doflamingo's room and returned to his own, guilt eating at him all the while.

Xxx

It was this fact - that no matter how mad Doflamingo was, how monstrous he can become, that he never directed any of it towards Rosinante and still treated Rosinante like his little brother - that made their story end like this, biological brothers pointing a gun at each other. Because no matter how protective Doflamingo could be of those he called his, he will only care for those he called his and not anyone else. Because Rosinante will always be protective of those he called his _and_ everyone else.

Law was in the treasure chest and Rosinante was so sorry, so sorry, that he had to hear this tragedy. The child didn't deserve any of what happened to him, but at least his life was lengthened now. Rosinante was so glad, so endlessly glad for that. Law could be free now.

"I know you can't shoot me," Doflamingo said, his eyes still hidden behind his tinted shades. Rosinante wondered what was in his eyes. "You're so much like your father."

His brother knew him so well.

"He was your father too, Doffy," Rosinante said, taking a step forward. Blood from his gunshot wounds dripped to the floor and his body _ached._ "We share the same father and mother."

"He was a fool," Doflamingo spat out. Another step. "But we were meant to rule." Another step. "Why must you stand against me?" Another step. "Why must I, for the second time, kill my own flesh and blood!?"

Rosinante took the final step and pressed his chest against the gun that Doflamingo was pointing at him. Then, he dropped his gun and smiled, and felt through the movement of the gun that Doflamingo startled. "You're right," he said, lifting his arms. "I can't shoot you."

"What are you trying to pull?" Doflamingo hissed.

Rosinante reached towards him with his hands.

Doflamingo shot.

Rosinante let out a hiss and almost toppled. Using the last of his strength, he knocked his brother's tinted glasses off.

"Ah, you have it too," Rosinante said as he fell, wavering blue eyes meeting wavering blue eyes. "Father's eyes."

Eyes full of gentleness, of regret. Of hurt.

Of anger at a betrayal.

Of a child of destruction.

Doflamingo unloaded the rest of the bullets into him, their gaze never breaking.

* * *

Just caught up to the anime, and there's entirely too much feels for me not to write. I'm not sure how well I got their voices, but I really wanted to show a softer, more brotherly side to both of them. Thank you for reading!


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